You CAN make these at home. Some of the ingredients are slightly exotic, but easy enough to find at any organic or health food store. The magic ingredient is the juice from a can of chickpeas, known by many vegans as aqua faba. This whips up to fabulous, magical fluffy mock egg whites and serves as the base for the marshmallows, along with a few other ingredients.

Next you beat in a hot syrup to make the candy, and then add in an agar-agar solution (instead of the traditional, animal-based gelatine). After a good amount of beating, the mixture will “vulcanize” and you’ll be ready to make marshmallows. Some recipes advise pouring it into a pan and cutting them into cubes, but I found that this makes a wet mess. Piping them into “kisses” provides more surface area, helping them dry properly.

I found the recipe originally on Seitan Is my Motor, but made a few modifications. Please read their link for more information… the more you read in preparation, the more likely it is to go smoothly!

In addition, I’ve provided a recipe below for some crazy-good s’mores cupcakes. These have a graham cracker-flavoured cake with a soft chocolate ganache, topped with toasted marshmallow. I thought they would be best fresh, but they are even more delicious if assembled the night before and allowed to sit at room temperature overnight before serving. Pull these babies out when you want to seriously impress people.

Combine 1/2 cup water and sugar in a medium pot. Whisk until combined.

Stir in cream of tartar and syrup.

Heat on medium, stirring once or twice, until mixture comes to a boil.

Continue to simmer without stirring, and place a candy thermometer in the pot to measure temperature.

Occasionally rush down splattered syrup from sides of pot with a brush dipped in water, and allow syrup to cook until it reaches 248F/120C. This will take five to ten minutes.

Meanwhile, combine chickpea juice, Xantham gum, and lemon juice in the bowl of your mixer with a whisk attachment.

Whisk chickpea mixture until it is stiff, about 2 minutes.

Add vanilla at beat for another two minutes.

Whisk together agar powder and 1/4 water in a small saucepan, and turn heat to low.

While still monitoring the syrup temperature, gently stir to agar mixture without letting it come to a simmer.

Once the syrup has reached 248F/120C, turn on mixer with chickpea foam inside. Slowly pour hot syrup into the mixing foam.

Beat on high speed for two-four minutes, while finishing the agar mixture.

Bring the agar to a simmer. Stir in 1 tsp more water.

Using your wet brush to wash any specks of agar the are on the sides of the pot while continuing to cook.

To test whether agar is ready, dip a fork into the solution and wave in the air to slightly cool off. When you taste the mixture, it should be smooth and not gritty.

Once the agar is ready, pour/scrape into the running mixer.

After incorporating the agar, pause mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Resume beating the mixture at high speed for at least five minutes, until the mixture is cooled to just above room temperature. You will notice that a bit of the mixture, when spooned out and waved around to cool, starts to get a bit rubbery.

Scoop mixture into a large piping bag without a tip.

Dust a sheet of waxed paper with icing sugar.

Pipe dollops (about 1 Tbsp in size) of mixture onto the sheet; if you wish you can also pipe onto prepared cupcakes (see below).

For loose marshmallows, sift with icing sugar and allow to cure at room temperature, uncovered, for at least a day.

S’mores cupcakes – An original recipe by Agent Minty

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

70g graham crackers (about 4.5 large sheets)

3/4 cup + 3 Tbsp white flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup Earth Balance/non-dairy hard margarine

6 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

6 Tbsp water

3 tsp egg replacer powder

2 Tbsp (40g) creamed honey, melted

2 Tbsp canola oil

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup non-dairy milk

Ganache

1/4 cup coconut cream from a can

2.3 cup chocolate chips

Prepared Marshmallow mix from above (Do not prepare until cupcakes and ganache have been assembled)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Process graham crackers in a food processor to get fine crumbs – This should make 1/2 cup +3 Tbsp.

Hi i own a vegan bakery in Melbourne Australia and im trying to make these for smores in my shop. Wonderful recipe and easy to follow but my marshmallows started to become wet and soft or deflate after a couple hours. I was thinking this may be because the sugar mixture wasnt hot enough. My thermometer only went to 110 celceus. So once it got there i left it on the stove for a few more min. Have you had a problem with them becoming wet inside? Also would cornstarch be better than icing sugar since it doesnt melt if moisture touches it like icing sugar does? I also only used golden syrup. Maybe karo syrup is better? Thanks heaps!
Lucas

Hi Lucas,
I think temperature does matter, as 120C is the upper end of the soft-ball stage of candying sugar. I wouldn’t use time, as sugar heating is not linear – it’ll stay at one temperature for a long time while the molecules rearrange, then start climbing again. There are physical tests you can do to check the sugar stage if your thermometer doesn’t got high enough.

My first few batches were wetter inside, but I think that was do to not cooking the sugar long enough and not beating the mixture long enough after.

Also, a longer “curing” time – say, 2 days in a cool dry place, will help.

Some people only use corn starch so that may work for you. Also, dry re-dutsting them after several hours, that may help.

I’m not sure about Karo vs golden syrup – I assume Karo is the pure clear white syrup, which I don’t like using exclusively, as the brand available to me has a bit of oil added (!).